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Junkie
Location: Ontario, Canada
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Maybe Pakistan is next! What the hell is the deal firing missiles into the territory of your most important ally in the Afghanistan fight and killing a couple dozen Pakistanis, includng women and children? Damn, even if you hit your target, you might never know with this approach.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10842035/
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A dinner invitation to al-Qaida’s second-in-command triggered a U.S. airstrike in Pakistan’s tribal region but Ayman al-Zawahri failed to show up, Pakistani intelligence officials said on Sunday.
Pakistan condemned Friday’s strike, which killed at least 17 people, including women and children, and summoned U.S. ambassador Ryan Crocker to protest. Thousands of local tribesmen also rallied near the scene, chanting anti-American slogans.
The Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that foreigners had been near the village of Damadola in the Bajaur region bordering Afghanistan and were the probable target.
Pakistani intelligence officials said they were checking reports up to seven foreign militants had been killed and their bodies removed by local supporters. But they said there were no indications Osama bin Laden’s deputy, al-Zawahri, was there.
“He was invited for the dinner, but we have no evidence he was present,” a senior intelligence official told Reuters.
Arabiya television reported on Saturday, quoting a source which it said has contact with al-Qaida, that al-Zawahri was still alive.
"Reports of his death are wishful thinking," it quoted unnamed sources as saying. The station gave no further details.
Al-Zawahri was believed to be in Damodola to celebrate Eid, the Muslim festival that coincides with the hajj, along with several other high-ranking al-Qaida officials, according to U.S. counter terrorism and intelligence officials.
"A group was gathering there, celebrating Eid," a senior U.S. counter terrorism official told NBC News. "He was supposed to be there and there is good reason to believe he was there. We are not talking about a 'strong hope' he was there. We had good intelligence."
Officials were listening for any "chatter" that would indicate Zawahri is dead or alive, believing that that will give them the first hint of his fate.
A senior U.S. intelligence official added that "some remains" had been retrieved from the area but would not say whether the remains were in the hands of Pakistani or U.S. officials.
Another Pakistani intelligence official said two local Islamist clerics, known for harboring al-Qaida militants, had attended the dinner but left hours before the airstrike at 3.00 a.m.
The U.S. sources said CIA-operated unmanned drones were believed to have been used in the attack. A Pakistani intelligence official said four missiles had been fired.
Washington has offered $25 million each for al-Zawahri and bin Laden, who have been on the run since U.S.-led forces toppled Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers in 2001 after the Sept. 11 attacks.
The two have long been thought to be hiding along the Afghan-Pakistan border under the protection of Pashtun tribes.
On Saturday, more than 8,000 tribesmen staged a peaceful protest in a nearby town to condemn the airstrike, which one speaker described as "open terrorism." Police dispersed a smaller protest in another town using tear gas. A mob torched the office of a U.S.-backed aid agency near Damadola, residents said.
The angry reaction to the strike comes just days after Pakistan, an important ally in the U.S.-led war on terrorism, lodged a strong protest with U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, saying cross-border firing in a nearby tribal area last weekend had killed eight people.
Pakistan is a key ally in the U.S.-led war on terror and has deployed tens of thousands of troops along the Afghan border to hunt down al-Qaida and Taliban fighters, but it says it does not allow U.S. forces to operate on its soil.
Al-Zawahri is seen as the brains behind al-Qaida and has been its public face, denouncing the United States in repeated video messages, the most recent of which was broadcast this month.
Killing him would be a major victory for Washington in its battle against al-Qaida, which has lost much of its capability to launch attacks globally after a string of high profile arrests in Pakistan and elsewhere, analysts say.
Al-Zawahri, a doctor involved in Egypt’s radical Muslim Brotherhood in the 1960s, teamed up with bin Laden in Pakistan in the 1980s when both were involved in a jihad, backed by the United States, to end the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
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Si vis pacem parabellum.
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